By Aren Framil, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Nine years ago, 2016 alumnus Daquan Perry played his first season with Conestoga Rugby as a senior. The team won the state championship for the first time in school history that same year. In 2024, he signed with the Seattle Seawolves, the second professional Major League Rugby (MLR) team he has played for since deciding to make rugby his career.
“At the beginning, I didn’t want to play (rugby) because I was playing football for Conestoga. That was my big thing. And then my senior year came,” Perry said. “I finally gave it a shot. All of my friends have been playing since middle school, so the transition was easy.”
Perry committed to Kutztown University to play Division II rugby. Former boys rugby assistant coach Marsh Pennington coached Perry at Conestoga and has crossed paths with him throughout his collegiate and professional rugby career.
“We would run into each other all the time. He’d always had the biggest smile on his face, and we’d give each other a big hug,” Pennington said. “He’s a very pleasurable man to be associated with”.
After four years playing for Kutztown and an almost undefeated senior season, Perry could not finish his final year of collegiate rugby due to COVID-19.
“I didn’t know where I was going to go. Then, I had a friend that lived in New York, and there was a sanctioned rugby game in New York,” Perry said. “I played really well in that game and had a hat trick. And then this is when it gets pretty crazy: RUNY (Rugby New York) staff was watching. They were like, ‘Okay, we want to bring you on.’”
RUNY, an MLR team based in New York City, signed Perry in 2021 with an associate player contract. After two years of competing for club rugby teams in New York and Texas, RUNY officially signed Perry for the New York Ironworkers’ 2023 season.
“I always wanted to be a professional athlete. Ever since I was a kid, that’s all I’m talking about,” Perry said. “But it was for the NFL. But then when I switched over to rugby, I was like, ‘Being a professional athlete is still a great achievement, no matter what craft you’re in.’ It’s only a few people that can say they did it.”
Later that year, RUNY folded after a failed attempt to sell the team. In 2024, Perry signed with the Seattle Seawolves, and the team placed second in the MLR after losing the championship game to the New England Free Jacks. This December, Perry competed under the coaching of Pennington once again for the Grenada World Sevens tournament.
“An example like Daquan is why I coach, I gotta be honest with you,” Pennington said. “He stuck with rugby, and he’s still playing rugby. He’s a true role model.”
Perry occasionally visits the Conestoga boys’ rugby team to help coach or run training sessions. Currently, he has returned to New York and plans to continue playing with a club rugby team in New York called Old Blue Rugby Football Club, as well as working a separate job in the offseason. Though Perry describes his rugby career as a tough journey, he believes all of his hard work has been worth it.
“When I come home, I try to go back and give back to ’Stoga,” Perry said. “It has not been an easy road whatsoever, but you grind. A lot of those sayings are ‘We do it because we love it.’”
Aren Framil can be reached at [email protected].
